Confrontations between the Nats’ racing presidents and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ racing pierogies tend to attract national media attention, and Friday night was no exception.

At PNC Park, fan favorite Pierogie Potato Pete came out of retirement once again to play a trick on the visiting Teddy Roosevelt.

For a moment, Potato Pete’s surprise appearance looked like it would be a repeat of the famous body slam on Teddy Roosevelt that ESPN Sportscenter anchor Scott Van Pelt called “the greatest highlight I’ve ever seen” in 2009.

But Pete stopped short, pulled out a giant cell phone, and got Teddy to pose for a selfie as Jalapeño Hannah raced by for the win.

The Nationals racing presidents made an appearance at the ESPN “up fronts” on Tuesday in New York City, joining executives on Broadway’s Minskoff Theater stage for the network’s annual gathering of media buyers.

The annual presentation has evolved over the years into a multimedia show filled with network personalities.

The Disney-owned network unveiled a redesigned set for its flagship SportsCenter show, and revealed that racing president Teddy Roosevelt would soon appear in the show’s iconic TV commercials.

The Nats’ famous mascots then scampered on stage as part of a scripted gag, and posed for photos with attendees.

Teddy’s Sportcenter ad was shot last week at ESPN headquarters, and should appear on the air this summer.

Teddy, meanwhile, lost again today in the final race of the homestand. The hero of San Juan Hill was forced to cut the outfield corner when Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln formed a makeshift blockade in centerfield.

As usual, Teddy Roosevelt pulled up the rear but stole the show, as ESPN’s E:60 ended Tuesday night with an eight minute Ken Burns-narrated feature story on the conspiracy surrounding Nationals racing president Teddy Roosevelt.

ESPN’s Michael Johns set out to produce the definitive piece on the Let Teddy Win movement, and by all accounts, a new bar has been set. The mini-documentary featured the Let Teddy Win blog along with interviews with Senator John McCain and the great great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt himself, Winthrop Roosevelt.

“Theodore Roosevelt is one of the great presidents in history,” McCain says in the video. “I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the fact that one of the truly great presidents in history has never won a race. I’m outraged. That’s why I’m calling for congressional hearings to right this horrible wrong.”

The Arizona senator called Teddy’s losing streak “one of the more traumatic experiences I’ve had as I watch my hero, my childhood idol, being treated in such a cavalier fashion.”

“He is Mount Rushmore’s Rodney Dangerfield,” Burns intones has he describes Teddy’s lot in modern day Washington, “a legendary president that gets no respect.”

ESPN’s E:60 will will be profiling the Let Teddy Win movement this Tuesday night at 7:00pm on ESPN and WatchESPN.com. I haven’t seen the final piece by Michael Johns, but he set out to produce the definitive documentary on the presidents race and Teddy Roosevelt’s travails, visiting Nationals Park and the area monuments with the presidents earlier this season.

ESPN got a lot of cooperation from the Nats, so it’s good to see this airing before the postseason. It seemed doubtful the Nats would let Teddy win before before it aired.

UPDATE: Here it is, narrated by Ken Burns and featuring Senator John McCain.

If there was any doubt that the Nationals are a hot national sports story, consider the hour-long Baseball Tonight pregame show preceding ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball coverage of Nats vs. Phillies.

Just a few minutes were devoted to the Phillies, while segment after segment focused on DC-centric topics, from Bryce Harper to the Nationals starting rotation to the team’s “Natitude” and “Take Back the Park” campaigns.

And yes, they even took the time to poll players around the league on the appeal of the Nationals’ racing
presidents:

After calling the fourth-inning presidents race, ESPN play by play man Dan Shulman references his visit earlier in the day to the Let Teddy Win website: